Click here to return to OFCN's Main Index Page.
--- Wednesday --- June 10, 1998 --- Vol. 1 --- No. 46 ---
D #### ##### #### ### #### #### ##### ### #### ####
A ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ##
I #### #### #### ## ## #### ## ## ##### #### ## ##
L ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ##
Y ## ## ##### ## ### ## ## ## ##### ## ## ## ## ####
THE UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
www.negp.gov
EBONICS REVISITED
The Center for Applied
Linguistics and the Graduate
School of Arts and Sciences at
Howard U have joined forces to
create a consortium of national
organizations dedicated to
examining issues related to
Ebonics.
In January, the group hosted
a conference on Language
Diversity and Academic
Achievement in the Education of
African American Students,
which "brought together some 50
national leaders in language,
education, and public policy,"
writes the CAL Reporter (Center
for Applied Linguistics) in its
May 1998 issue.
Conference participants agree
that the inability of many
teachers to understand the
contrasts between Standard
English and varieties of
English spoken by black stu-
dents often leads to ineffec-
tive classroom instruction.
Several programs were recom-
mended for educating teachers
and students about variations
of English spoken in different
regions and among different
social groups. For more info:
www.cal.org/ebonics.
__________ __________
| SPOTLIGHT |
| |
| HARD AT WORK |
| |
| Lancaster, Pa., like most |
| of the nation, is in the |
| throes of a strong economy. |
| Jobs are abundant; and many |
| high school students are |
| leaving school for a |
| paycheck. (#1) |
| |
| Pa. allows students age |
| 16 and older to quit school |
| if they work at least 32 |
| hours a week. Lancaster |
| school officials found that |
| part of their dropout |
| problem can be attributed |
| to the lure of even a low- |
| wage job. |
| |
| The Lancaster County |
| Academy, a nontraditional |
| school, allows high school |
| dropouts to earn a degree |
| while pursuing career |
| options. A highly |
| flexible, yet rigorous, |
| school schedule allows |
| students to work, take |
| courses and develop a plan |
| for meeting their career |
| goals. (#9) |
|_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"Nobody has really forced them to think about it. They just kind
of job shop: They'll quit a job and go to another job for a
quarter an hour more."
Diane Tyson, program director of the Lancaster County Academy.
_______________________________________________________________
| (c) by the Education Policy Network, Inc. |
| 1255 22nd Street NW; Washington, D.C. 20010; 202/724-0124 |
| EPN, Inc. hereby authorizes further reproduction and |
| distribution with proper acknowledgement. |
| Publisher: Barbara A. Pape |
|_______________________________________________________________|
============== TABLE OF CONTENTS ==============
GOAL TWO: HIGH SCHOOL COMPLETION
FLEXIBILITY: Key to Lancaster County Academy's success. (#1)
GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP
DIRECT INSTRUCTION: It works at Houston elementary school. (#2)
AMERICA READS: One thousand and growing. (#3)
GOAL FOUR: TEACHER ED/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
TEACHER RECRUITMENT: A Va. district ponders options. (#4)
GOAL FIVE: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE
SCIENCE GRANTS: Deadline is 1 October. (#5)
===== GOAL TWO: HIGH SCHOOL COMPLETION =====
*1 FLEXIBILITY: KEY TO LANCASTER COUNTY ACADEMY'S SUCCESS
A surplus of low-wage jobs has tempted far too many
Lancaster County, Pa., high school students drop out of school
and enter the job world. ED DAILY reports that Pa. students are
permitted to leave school once they turn 16 if they can work 32
hours a week (Dembicki, 4/30).
"They're making minimum wage, but, when you're 16, $200 [a
week] is big bucks," said Diane Tyson, program director of the
Lancaster County Academy, a non-traditional school that combines
academics and career help for high school dropouts.
The nearly 100 students age 18 to 24 who attend the Academy
must earn 21 credits to graduate, including four in English,
math, science and social sciences. The students also earn two to
three credits for school-to-work and service learning courses.
Teachers also help students organize their career plans by
checking labor market statistics for the occupations they are
considering, participating in job shadowing and drafting a five-
year plan that outlines "which area schools offer the education
and training they need for their careers, the length and cost of
the program and how to tap financial resources," writes the
paper.
Tyson: "Nobody has really forced them to think about it.
They just kind of job shop: They'll quit a job and go to another
job for a quarter an hour more."
This year, Academy staff are trying to broaden the field of
career opportunities by including more manufacturing and other
non-service related industries. They also are developing more
technical training programs in areas such as electrical work and
welding. A $100,000 federal school-to-work grant is being used
to align better the school's curricula with various careers,
writes the paper.
===== GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP =====
*2 DIRECT INSTRUCTION: IT WORKS AT HOUSTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Direct instruction, a teaching method that emerged during
the 1960s War on Poverty, but abandoned soon after, is alive and
well at the Mabel B. Wesley Elementary School in Houston
(AP/Richmond TIMES-DISPATCH, 5/31). This year, its first-grade
students ranked in the top 13 of 182 schools in Houston on the
reading portion of the Stanford 9 test, writes the paper.
A typical kindergarten class at Wesley finds students poised
to learn in the LLP or "listening, learning position," with hands
on the table, feet on the floor and eyes on the teacher. In
unison, children repeat answers to a teacher's questions up to
three times, to ensure that everyone absorbs the material, notes
the paper.
Wesley's 1,060 children are mainly minority and low-income.
According to the paper, "educators make pilgrimages to the
school," to discover how the students score so well on
standardized tests.
The paper also notes that the direct instruction method is
being dusted off by schools in Chicago, Baltimore, Broward
County, Fla., and parts of Utah. Wesley is part of a group of
charter schools.
However, not all educators warm to the thought of direct
instruction. Kenneth Goodman, professor of Language, Reading and
Culture at the U of Arizona, labels the method "rat psychology,"
that is only used for low-income children, because wealthier
parents "wouldn't stand for" it.
"Kindergarten is a chance for kids to come to school and to
have a chance to be with other kids, to get socialized to school,
to learn to play together, to hear stories built from
experience," said Goodman. "To turn it into a kind of place
where you're drilled in abstract things that don't make any sense
to you -- it's not, in the term that the early childhood people
use, developmentally appropriate."
Direct instruction advocates argue that without direct
instruction, disadvantaged children are trapped in the low-
expectations game. From the paper: "Their parents are often
illiterate or so busy making ends meet that they can't spend time
at home. They can't afford the tutors hired by many affluent
parents to fill in the gaps left by schools."
*3 AMERICA READS: ONE THOUSAND AND GROWING
President Clinton last week announced that over a thousand
colleges and universities have joined The America Reads Challenge
by agreeing to send college work-study students to tutor children
in reading. The America Reads Challenge is Clinton's initiative
to help all children read well by the end of third grade.
Under a waiver initiated by Ed Sec Richard Riley, the
federal government pays 100% of the wages of any college Federal
Work-Study who tutors children in the community. A new waiver
that goes into effect on 1 July 1998 will expand tutoring into
family literacy programs. "The parent is the child's first and
most important teacher," said Carol Rasco, director of The
America Reads Challenge. "Sometimes the best way to help a child
is to help parents with their own literacy skills and encourage
them to read with and to their children," she said.
Following are examples of efforts underway at various
universities:
A consortium of southern Fla. schools, led by Miami-Dade
Community College, sent 216 tutors to disadvantaged, inner-
city schools;
Yale U paired a college tutor with every student in one
urban elementary class;
Boston U paired college tutors one-on-one with Head Start
preschoolers;
U of Michigan, Ann Arbor, created a family newsletter to
inform parents about how to reinforce literacy-building
skills at home;
A U of Hawaii, Manoa, tutor incorporated dance and movement
in the reading process;
The U of Baltimore will send 28 work-study students to
SuperKids Camp this summer to tutor in reading and promote
fun reading activities.
For more information, visit the America Reads Challenge Web
site: www.ed.gov/inits/americareads.
===== GOAL FOUR: TEACHER ED/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT =====
*4 TEACHER RECRUITMENT: A VA. DISTRICT PONDERS OPTIONS
High pay and a good location makes Alexandria, Va., an ideal
locale for many teachers. However, school officials note
several "serious deficiencies" in teacher recruitment and have
pledged to designate the upcoming school year "human resources
year." (Jennings, Alexandria JOURNAL, 6/1).
"You have 900 teachers out there, and they are the key to
whether we will be successful or not," said School Board Chairman
Stephen Kenealy. "This is the time at which we should look at
the whole thing to try to innovate."
Two troublesome areas for the district: teachers who retire
in the middle of the school year, which makes finding a
replacement difficult; and a dearth of substitute teachers.
Board member Dan Goldhaber offered a proposal that would
shift funds from one budget item to a new provision that would
provide incentives for teachers to work in Alexandria.
Currently, the school district pays teachers more who have
advanced degrees in a subject -- even if they are not teaching in
that subject area. For example, a teacher may have an advanced
degree in English, but is teaching biology. Under Goldhaber's
proposal, teachers teaching out-of-field would no longer receive
extra pay for their advanced degree. Funds now targeted to the
bonus would be redirected to teacher-recruitment efforts.
According to the paper, the proposal has stalled primarily
because of the complexity of deciding what degrees to cover or
not cover and for which teachers.
Other proposals floating, include: pay a bonus to teachers
who notify the system early that they are leaving; discourage
mid-year retirements; give additional credit for experience; and
hire a permanent "bullpen" of substitutes.
The paper surmises that closure will not be reached on the
teacher recruitment efforts until the 1999-2000 school year.
===== GOAL FIVE: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE =====
*5 SCIENCE GRANTS: DEADLINE IS 1 OCTOBER
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has announced a
new $12M, four-year grant program designed to improve K-12
science education. Sundry biomedical research institutions,
including medical schools, academic health centers, and
independent biomedical research institutions are eligible to
apply. Schools can join with these groups to receive funding.
Projects should connect scientists with students through
various hands-on activities. The project also should demonstrate
how it will help students achieve existing state and local
education standards.
Awards ranging from $200,000 to $500,000 will be announced
next summer. The deadline is 1 October 1998.
For more information, contact the Howard Huges Medical
Institute; 4000 Jones Bridge Road; Chevy Chase, Md. 20815;
301/215-8873; www.hhmi.org/grants/precollege.
Click here to return to The 1998 Daily Report Card
Click here to return to OFCN's
Academy Program
Click here to return to OFCN's Main Index Page.
Webmaster@ofcn.org